Jean-Baptiste Roucourt

Jean-Baptiste Roucourt (Brussels, 28 October 1780 - Brussels, 1 May 1849) was a music pedagogue, singer and composer. He founded the music school which was the cradle of the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. Early life (1780-1812) Jean-Baptiste Roucourt was born in Brussels in the Austrian Netherlands. His father François Roucourt was from Diest and his mother Catherine Barbe Bormans from Gingelom in the Bishopric of Liège, but they lived in Brussels, near the Treurenberg, by the time of Jean-Baptiste’s birth. The household counted at least two older children, Catherine Henriette and Louis. Jean-Baptiste was baptized at the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula on the day of his birth. In his early childhood, he had music education from Adrien-Joseph Van Helmont, who had succeeded his father Charles-Joseph as music master at the Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula in 1777. However, Van Helmont junior being also employed as a singer at the royal chapel since the same year, and Van Helmont senior having declared in his resignation letter that he would keep the pay and the duties as a music master as long as his health allowed him to (this was a normal way to ensure one’s retirement al